Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Dr. Seuss in Clay and Cake

I'm much more of a Dr Seuss fan than I use to be. (Aside from the classic Grinch Christmas special. I've always loved that.) When I was younger, I really didn't have much exposure to his books. I mostly just remember a big stack of them at the doctor's office and reading "Green Eggs and Ham" there. To be honest, I wasn't super fond of it. I just never liked books that repeated lines over and over again like that. And I hate to admit it but all those silly made up Seuss-words kind of irked me when I was a kid. (Which doesn't make any sense at all. I was a weirdo. :P)

The Grinch's leg broke off  :(

Steve, on the other hand, has always been a big Dr. Seuss fan.  He also happens to be fantastic at reading his books aloud.  The summer before we were dating, I sat on my porch swing one warm night and listened to Steve read me "The Lorax" over the phone, and ever since then I've realized just how lovely "those silly made up Seuss-words" are. :) 


So, for a late V-Day/early 1.5 year anniversary gift, I decided to try my first attempt at modeling clay.  (Yeah, I know. It's not edible.  But hang in there! I'm tossing a cake in at the end of this. :P)  I figured if anything, it would be good practice for fondant figures.   Overall, it was a really time consuming fun project, and a neat gift.  The Lorax seemed to approve of his miniature-self as well.  Grinch, on the other hand, just looked as devious as always :P.


As far as cake goes, I figured I'd post my first fondant cake, which  I made for Steve's birthday last summer.  It's subject-related obviously, but also, I'm desperately searching for the best fondant recipe out there.  The batch I made for this cake came from the funkiest fondant recipe I've every seen.  It even had a small amount of glycerin in it. (At the time, I didn't realize how strange that was.)  Since then I've tried simpler recipes and marshmallow fondant, and I've yet to be satisfied.  Then again, I've had professionally made cakes with fondant, and I still think the stuff is unappetizing..  Either way, if you have a good fondant recipe, drop it this way.

  On a quick side note, I've been adding a few things to the blog.  I've had it set so you don't need a Blogger account to comment for awhile, but now you can subscribe via email by using the box to the right of my posts. (Or find the button for subscribing through my RSS feed if that floats your boat instead.)  Also, if you use Stumble Upon, it would be just awesome if you could click on the Stumble Upon badge, or even click the link to share any posts on Facebook.  See, lots of fancy stuff here. :P
Alright, I'm done shamelessly self-promoting now.  Toodles! ;)

<3 Rachel



10 comments:

  1. Awesome cake! I love Dr. Seuss.

    I know what you mean about fondant. I don't find it very appealing. I recently found a recipe for chocolate plastic which intrigued me, but I haven't gotten round to using it yet. It may be what you're looking for.

    http://candy.about.com/od/chocolate/r/choc_plastic.htm

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  2. So cute!! A very thoughtful cake. Your time spent was well worth it!!

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  3. Very nice! You make me want to start baking, but this would be a very bad idea. Anyway, that's why I have your blog so I can't look at wonderful cakes but not have to make them.

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  4. My son's favorite Dr. Suess book when he was little was Fox in Socks. Those clay figures and cake you made for your boyfriend are so cute and sweet! He must have loved them!

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  5. I love fondant and have never attempted to work with it--kudos!!

    When my children were small, we lived in La Jolla--in Dr. Seuss' neighborhood. He was known as Theo around town. We would see him from time to time but never met him. His wife would come to the village bookstore and take books home for him to sign. We have quite a few of those.

    Best,
    Bonnie

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  6. that is so impressive! me, i like nonsense, but i LOVE colorful and fun cakes. well done. :)

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  7. Love your cake! I have a love hate relationship with fondant, don't like it's taste but I do love playing with it :)
    mickey

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  8. Oh how colorful! Looks like alot of hard work went into making this but it looks totally worth the effort :)

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  9. Greetings from Southern California

    I added myself to follow your blog. I invite you to visit mine and become a follower if you want too.

    God bless you and have a nice day :-)

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